GRANDVILLE, MI - Luke Diekevers is a gifted athlete. But even his coach didn’t know he was this good.

Diekevers, a 6-foot-5 Jenison High School receiver, made a wild one-handed catch in the end zone that would have made Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson proud.

“We practice that every day,” Jenison coach Todd Kolster said. “But not one-handed, behind-the-back, twisting catches. We throw the ball up to guys like Luke and CJ VanTimmeren all the time.”

Luke Diekevers (Mlive.com file photo)

Diekevers scored three touchdowns as the Wildcats beat Grandville 28-21 in a back-and-forth game with their neighboring rival on Thursday night to open the season.

Brett Bethke, Jenison’s senior quarterback, played the role of running back late in the fourth quarter. With the Wildcats trailing 21-20, he rumbled 22 yards and dragged three defenders with him for a touchdown to put Jenison back in the lead with 2:11 left in the game. Bethke then scored on a 2-point conversion for a 28-21 lead.

“When I saw him get hit, I knew he wouldn’t go down,” Diekevers said. “His will to win is tremendous. He’s not a big guy, but he doesn’t go down easy.”

Brett has a lethal companion on offense: His brother Brock Bethke, a running back.Brett passed for 119 yards and ran for 78 yards and Brock ran for 70 yards and had 30 yards receiving.

“They are true-blue competitors,” Kolster said of the Bethkes. “There’s nothing negative to say about those two kids. It was so clear that Brock (a sophomore) belonged up. They are both competitive every day in practice. And you can see how talented those kids are when they get going.”

Grandville fumbled the snap on the first play of the game and Jenison capitalized three plays later when Diekevers caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Brett Bethke for a 6-0 lead.

Grandville had a 13-play drive but got stopped at the 1-yard line by a solid Jenison line and gave up the ball on downs.

“Our defense just kept plugging away the whole game,” Kolster said.

Diekevers scored again in the second quarter. He caught an 11-yard pass with 7:30 left in the quarter. A Brock Bethke run on the 2-point conversion gave the Wildcats a 14-0 lead.

Grandville finally got on the scoreboard with 1:30 left in the first half when sophomore quarterback Ryan Koorndyk threw a 4-yard pass to Josh Ham to cut Jenison’s lead to 14-6 at halftime.

Jenison opened the second half with a nice drive, but it didn’t end well. Diekevers caught a 21-yard pass, but lost the ball and Grandville's Caleb Winner recovered on the 18-yard line.

Koorndyk, who passed for 116 yards and ran for 51 on the night, got the Bulldogs back in the game. The sophomore scored on a 29-yard quarterback keeper and then scored on a 2-point conversion to tie the score at 14-14.

“He’s a sophomore that we’re going to (let) lead this team and lead this program,” Grandville coach Michael Lapciuk said. “He’s a phenomenal football player. It was our goal to split time, and we were going to make a decision at halftime, we did and now we move forward.”

The Wildcats regained the lead with 31 seconds left in the third quarter when Diekevers caught a 12-yard pass from Brett Bethke that he floated to the left side of the end zone where he allowed Diekevers to use his height. It gave Jenison a 20-14 lead after the kick failed.

“I knew Brett would get me the ball there,” Diekevers said of the corner of the end zone. “I don’t know why, but I kept my hand on the DB and I went up with one hand and caught it.”

With 9 minutes left in the game, a holding call on 4th and 7 gave Grandville a first down in the red zone and new life. And they would capitalize.

Brandon Owens caught a 10-yard pass from Koorndyk and the kick by Danny Burian gave the Bulldogs a 21-20 lead with 7:26 left in the game.

“They are so devastated right now,” Lapciuk said. “We thought we prepared physically and mentally. But a couple of mistakes here and there and they capitalized on them.”

Diekevers, who also stars on the basketball team, finished with 75 yards receiving and 29 rushing. He also made some punishing tackles when he was playing safety.

“Luke’s a special kid,” Kolster said. “We knew he was going to help raise the level of our team. Not just being an individual player but he raises the level of everyone else and he showed that tonight.”

Lapciuk agrees with Kolster about the talented Diekevers.

“We knew coming in that Luke’s a great athlete,” Lapciuk said. “I love the kid. I had him at Jenison. I got to know his family. He’s the only kid in the post-game lineup that said ‘good game Coach.’ I think that’s phenomenal.”

Lapciuk said he was in the Jenison system when Diekevers was in middle school. He moved on to be an assistant coach at Grand Rapids Christian before getting the head coaching job at Grandville.